The Information Age is upon us. Access to vast quantities of information through a variety of different communication systems are changing the way people work, entertain themselves, and communicate with each other. Faster, more capable communication technologies are constantly being developed. For the manufacturers and designers of these new technologies, achieving “interoperability” is becoming an increasingly difficult challenge.
Interoperability is the ability for one device to communicate with another device, or to communicate with another network, through which other communication devices may be contacted. However, with the explosion of different communication protocols (i.e., the rules communications equipment use to transfer data), designing true interoperability is not a trivial pursuit.
For example, most wireless communication devices employ conventional, narrowband “carrier wave” technology that employs a specific radio frequency band, while other devices use electro-optical technology. In addition to wireless communications, data is also transmitted through wire media, such as fiber optic cable, co-axial cable, twisted-pair wire and other types of wire media. Generally, each one of these communication technologies employ their own rules, or protocols for transferring data.
Another type of communication technology is ultra-wideband (UWB). UWB technology is fundamentally different from conventional, narrowband radio frequency technology. UWB employs a “carrier free” architecture, which does not require the use of high frequency carrier generation hardware, carrier modulation hardware, frequency and phase discrimination hardware or other devices employed in conventional frequency domain communication systems. Of course, UWB has its own set of communication protocols.
Therefore, there exists a need for apparatus and methods that enable communication between different communication media, technologies, and architectures.